Impro for Storytellers

by Johnstone,Keith

• ISBN13: 9780878301058
• ISBN10: 0878301054
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 1999-06-24
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Impro for Storytellers is the follow-up to Keith Johnstone's classic Impro, one of the best-selling books ever published on improvisation. In this book, Johnstone takes a further decade of experience as a teacher and coach and explores how an individual's potential can be released in group settings. "Be more boring!" he might yell to a student striving to be original. "Be more obvious!" he could advise a clever performer.These are unorthodox techniques, but ones that are part of the games that have made Johnstone's work uniquely effective in the theatre community. Beyond its strictly theatrical applications, Impro for Storytellers aims to take jealous and self-obsessed beginners and teach them to play games with good nature and to fail gracefully.If you've ever been clumsy and awkward, this book will improve your interpersonal skills and encourage a life-long study of human interaction.

Author Biography

Keith Johnstone is an inspirational teacher and writer. Impro For Storytellers takes jealous and self-obsessed beginners and teaches them to play games with good nature and to fail gracefully. If you've ever been clumsy and awkward, this book will improve your interpersonal skills and encourage a life-long study of human interaction.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
1 Theatresports	1	(24)
Origins	1	(1)
Theatresports at Loose Moose	2	(4)
Theatresports by Stealth	6	(1)
Teaching the `Form'	7	(4)
In at the Deep End	11	(1)
Disaster is Unavoidable	12	(1)
The Sticky Stage	12	(1)
The Magnetic Stage	13	(1)
Challenges	13	(3)
The Warning for Boring	16	(2)
Misbehaviour	18	(2)
Using Audience Volunteers	20	(1)
Mime	21	(1)
Why is Theatresports a Comic Form?	22	(1)
Types of Player	23	(1)
What Theatresports Can Achieve	23	(2)
2 Audience Suggestions	25	(6)
No One Cares	25	(1)
Laughter Misleads	26	(2)
Traps	28	(1)
Rejecting Suggestions	28	(1)
Scene Sale	29	(1)
Use Restraint	29	(2)
3 Trouble with Feedback	31	(24)
Getting Educated	31	(1)
Fools' Paradise	31	(2)
Destructive Feedback	33	(1)
Being `Over-cheered'	33	(1)
Group-Yes	34	(2)
Flashlight Theatre	36	(1)
The `Seen Enough' Game	36	(3)
Theme and Forfeit	39	(3)
Gorilla Theatre	42	(7)
Micetro Impro	49	(6)
4 Spontaneity	55	(20)
`Here Be Monsters'	55	(1)
Being a Chameleon	55	(1)
No Syllabus	55	(1)
Progressive Desensitization	56	(1)
Paradoxical Teaching	56	(1)
Tug-o'-War	57	(1)
Giving Presents	58	(1)
Evaluating the Work	59	(1)
Playing Tag	59	(1)
On Not Making the Rules Clear	60	(1)
Blame Me	60	(1)
Drop Dead, Keith	61	(1)
Volunteers, and Failure	61	(1)
When Students Fail	62	(1)
Forcing Failure	63	(1)
Don't Punish Yourself	64	(1)
Be Average	64	(2)
Sport Versus Show-business	66	(1)
The Wrong Risks	67	(1)
Dullness is Deliberate	68	(1)
Being `Original'	69	(3)
The Imagination	72	(1)
Prodigies	73	(2)
5 Impro for Storytellers	75	(26)
Journey without Maps	75	(1)
Action and Interaction	76	(2)
On Not Being a Hero	78	(1)
Moral Decisions	78	(1)
Circles of Expectation	79	(1)
Point	80	(1)
justification	81	(1)
Mysteries	82	(2)
Breaking the Routine	84	(5)
Fun with Tilting	89	(12)
6 Making Things Happen	101	(29)
Blocking	101	(12)
Being Negative	113	(1)
Wimping	114	(4)
Cancelling	118	(1)
Joining	118	(1)
Gossiping	118	(2)
Agreed Activities	120	(1)
Bridging	120	(3)
Hedging	123	(1)
Sidetracking	123	(1)
Being Original	124	(1)
Looping	124	(1)
Gagging	125	(2)
Comic Exaggeration	127	(1)
Conflict	128	(1)
Instant Trouble	128	(1)
Lowering the Stakes	128	(1)
Consequences	129	(1)
7 Story Games	130	(25)
Creating Games	130	(1)
Word-at-a-Time	131	(3)
What Comes Next?	134	(8)
Non-sequential Lists	142	(2)
Link the Items	144	(1)
Verbal Chase	144	(1)
The Boris Game	145	(6)
Keyboard Game	151	(4)
8 Being There	155	(28)
Three-word Sentences	155	(1)
One-word Sentences	155	(1)
The Hat-Game	156	(6)
Making Faces	162	(6)
The Vampire	168	(1)
Leave for the Same Reason	169	(2)
Dubbing	171	(7)
Invisibility	178	(3)
The Ghost Game	181	(2)
9 Some Filler Games	183	(9)
The Die Game	183	(1)
Emotional Goals	184	(1)
Endowments	185	(1)
Freeze Games	186	(1)
Guess the Phrase	187	(1)
The No `S' Game	188	(1)
A Scene without...	189	(1)
Sideways Scenes	189	(1)
Yes-But	190	(2)
10 Procedures	192	(72)
Blind Offers	192	(1)
Justify the Gesture	193	(2)
He Said/She Said	195	(4)
Substitution Impro	199	(1)
Moving Bodies	200	(2)
The Arms	202	(2)
The Dwarf	204	(1)
The Giant	204	(1)
Adjective	204	(1)
Wide Eyes	204	(2)
Wide Mouth	206	(1)
Tempo	207	(1)
Sound Scape	208	(1)
You're Interesting	209	(2)
Boring the Audience	211	(1)
Wallpaper Drama	212	(1)
Straight Men	213	(1)
Gibberish	214	(5)
Status	219	(13)
The Kinetic Dance	232	(1)
Party Endowments	233	(3)
Sandwiches	236	(1)
The King Game	237	(3)
Master-Servant	240	(1)
Slow-motion Commentary	241	(4)
Verse	245	(1)
The Klutz	246	(2)
Advancing (And Not Advancing)	248	(6)
Hitting with Balloons	254	(6)
Beep-Beep	260	(4)
11 Serious Scenes	264	(11)
Substituting Phrases	264	(1)
Love and Hate	265	(3)
Emotional Sounds	268	(2)
Mantras	270	(4)
Alfred Lunt	274	(1)
12 Character	275	(27)
Who Are We?	275	(1)
Changing the Body Image	276	(1)
Machines	277	(1)
People Machines	277	(1)
Being Animals	278	(2)
Obsessions	280	(3)
Fast-Food Laban	283	(2)
Fast-Food Stanislavsky	285	(17)
13 Miscellaneous Games	302	(5)
Bell and Buzzer	302	(1)
Scenes with Fingers	302	(1)
People as Objects	303	(1)
Dennis's Puppet Show	304	(1)
Changing the Object	304	(3)
14 Entertainment Games	307	(13)
Stealing	307	(1)
The Knife Game	308	(2)
Hand on Knee	310	(4)
Spasms	314	(2)
Paper-Flicking	316	(1)
Speech Defect Game	317	(3)
15 Technical Stuff	320	(17)
Judges	320	(5)
Penalties	325	(1)
Counting Out	326	(1)
Waving the Lights Down	327	(1)
Scoring	327	(1)
Three Seldom-used Versions of Theatre-sports	328	(1)
The Five Theatresports Matches in Current Use	329	(2)
Rules of Theatresports	331	(6)
16 Afterthoughts	337	(6)
The Body	337	(1)
The Mind	338	(1)
The Sexes	338	(1)
Quality	339	(1)
Great Audiences	340	(1)
Great Improvisers	341	(1)
Getting Jaded	341	(2)
Appendix One: Fast-Food Stanislavsky Lists	343	(11)
Appendix Two: A Selection of Tilt Lists	354	(8)
Appendix Three: More Filler Games	362	(7)
Appendix Four: Notes I've Given	369	(4)
Index of Games	373